Saturday, April 03, 2004
What Is Greatness?
"The hardest task one can have is to continue to
love his fellows despite all reasons he should not."
"For the one who can achieve this, there is abundant
hope.
"For those who cannot, there is only sorrow, hatred
and despair. And these are not the things of which
greatness, or sanity or happiness are made.
"A primary trap is to succumb to invitations to
hate.
"Never use what is done to one as a basis for
hatred. Never desire revenge.
"It requires real strength to love man*. And to love
him despite all invitations to do otherwise, all
provocations and all reasons why one should not.
"Happiness and strength endure only in the absence
of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To
love is the road to strength. To love in spite of
all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be
the greatest secret in this universe." -- L. Ron
Hubbard (*Man: mankind; the human race.)
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Love, of course, does not need to be physical. You
don't need to hug your boss or employee and say, "I
love you Bob!"
You simply like everyone as much as possible.
EXAMPLES
1. You are driving down the road enjoying some music
and some idiot cuts in front of you making you slam
on the brakes to avoid a collision. You send him a
mental curse and hope he has a rotten life. This
doesn't make you feel any better. In fact, you feel
irritated and start driving recklessly yourself.
You decide to be great. You try to love the person,
but the best you can do is find a little
understanding. You think, "He must be late for work"
and decide to wish him well. Within seconds, you
feel better and forget about it. You go back to
enjoying your music.
2. Two years ago, you and friend Jim bought a
delivery van together. He used it during the day to
make deliveries from his flower shop and you used it
at night to deliver newspapers to your delivery
people.
One night, your delivery man calls and says, "The
van's not at Jim's where I normally pick it up."
You called Jim who said, "Oh, I sort of rented it to
this guy."
You said, "We need it to get the papers onto the
streets."
He said, "Well, actually I sold it because I had to
pay off some bills. I'll pay you back, I promise!"
You can't believe he did this to you. You yell at
him and vow to never speak to him again. You jump in
your car and spend all night moving newspapers.
Every time you think about Jim and the van, you get
upset. Even two years later, you feel the hatred
every time you see your new van. It makes you
unpleasant to be around.
You plot revenge in several ways. You'll spray paint
his store windows. You'll ruin his credit. You'll
spread rumors about him.
But after two years, you decide to be great about
it.
You call Jim. He apologizes again and you say,
"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry too. Do you want to
go fishing this weekend?"
You feel better than you've felt in two years. Your
employees like being around you again.
3. Before you meet the new president of your
business support group you dislike her. You've been
hearing rumors and bad opinions about her all week.
For example, you heard she doesn't like real estate
agents and you're a real estate agent.
During the group's social hour, you see the new
president walking toward you. She doesn't smile when
she looks at you. You feel snubbed.
You decide to snub her back and you turn around and
ignore her. Your feel your face turning red with
anger. You start to plan how you can ruin her.
But then you decide to be great. You ignore all the
rumors and decide to love the new president.
You get introduced and give your best smile.
"Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your new position
here!" You instantly treat her like a close friend.
The new president is relieved to have a supporter.
She confides in you. "I'm so nervous about this! I
sure want to help the members of this group."
You become good friends. You find out she manages
five large apartment complexes.
She sends you so many people who want to buy
condominiums and houses that your sales double that
year.
4. You overhear one of your employees scream on the
telephone, "Well, if you don't like my attitude, you
can take your business elsewhere!" She slams down
the telephone and then sees you standing there. You
feel a little hatred as it appears she's turning
away customers.
Many bosses would say, "You treat a customer like
that again and you're fired!"
But you want to be a great boss and continue to love
your staff even when you have reasons not to.
You say, "What happened here?"
"This jerk asked me if I was new or just stupid."
"So you yelled at him and told him we didn't want
his business?"
"Right."
"Well if we don't sell to jerks, we won't make any
money and will have to lay off some staff. You need
to deal with jerks if you want to succeed on this
job. Can you do it?"
"Yea, I suppose. I'll bite my tongue and be polite
no matter what they say from now on."
"Do you need help learning how to do that?"
"No, I'll be fine. Thanks."
Being great leads to a sane, cheerful, profitable
operation.
SEVEN RECOMMENDATIONS
Below is some of the most difficult, but most useful
advice you may ever receive.
1. Start loving everyone you know at home and at
work.
2. Whenever someone gives you a good reason to not
love him or her, be great and love him or her
anyway.
3. Whenever someone invites or provokes you to hate
him or her, refuse to play the game. Instead,
generate some understanding for the person and, if
possible, some love.
4. Eliminate revenge as a purpose in your life. Who
do you want to get even with? Change that decision
to something positive, such as the desire for
prosperity for yourself and others.
5. Whenever you feel depressed (sorrow) or a loss of
hope (despair), find someone to love.
6. Make yourself happy by loving people. If you ever
feel happy and then unhappy, find where you let some
hate slip in. Your happiness will persist if you do
not feel revenge or hate.
7. Make yourself mentally tough and strong by loving
people. To maintain that strength, do not seek
revenge or agree with reasons to hate.
"To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness.
-- L. Ron Hubbard
BabyStridy fades away at
9:54:00 PM;